Bioconjugate Chemistry

Editorial pubs.acs.org/bc Editorial t has been an exciting year for us at Bioconjugate Chemistry. show the actual benefits of well-defined bioconjugates to gain I Over the past 12 months we have worked hard to broaden more insight in biological processes and/or to achieve more the scope and impact of the journal while maintaining the rigor efficient therapeutic materials. Besides the translation of that BC was known for. One area we have focused on is existing methods from concept to application, there is also enhancing the manuscript review process. Through meaningful ample room for the design of novel conjugation methodologies. feedback to authors and excellent help from the reviewer A highly important development in the soft matter field is the community, we have lowered the submission to online introduction of stimulus-responsiveness and adaptability in publication to less than 40 days. We have also created a social molecules and materials, to allow them to change their media presencecheck us out at https://www.facebook.com/ properties based on the environment they are in. Bioconjuga- bioconjugatechemistry. Editors and EAB members have tion methods that are responsive and reversible, and which can provided a presence for BC at conferences worldwide, with be executed with spatiotemporal control, will be highly valuable help from the folks at ACS. for the development of this class of bioconjugates, in particular, Coming into Year 2, I thought it would be helpful for you to if this chemistry could be extended to living systems. meet the Editors at BC. This way you can get an idea of what As a polymer chemist by training, I have always been our visions are for the future, and pragmatically whom you’ll interested in approaches that allow the synthesis of highly suggest as Editor for your next submission. defined materials with unique properties, such as controlled polymerization, dendrimer synthesis, and protein engineering. ■ JAN VAN HEST During a short stay in industry, with the chemical company DSM, I realized that combining properties of biomolecules with synthetic polymers could lead to a new class of hybrid materials with unprecedented properties. This has also become the mission of my bio-organic chemistry group at Radboud University Nijmegen, where we use a range of synthetic methodologies to construct protein and peptide-based hybrid materials. Bioconjugation naturally plays a crucial role in this endeavor. One of the focal points of our research is the construction of well-defined polymer capsules that are used to store and protect (bio)catalysts; these nanoreactors are applied as cell and organelle mimics. Polymer capsules are furthermore also used for targeted drug delivery, for example, to cross the blood-brain barrier. ■ ERIN LAVIK The discipline of science dedicated to the construction of hybrid polymers, in which the properties of molecules from synthetic and biological origin are combined to attain materials with emergent properties, has experienced rapid development over the past decade. One of the important drivers for the advancement of this field is the availability of novel conjugation methods. Techniques predominantly developed for chemical biology applications, with important features such as high reaction rate and bio-orthogonality, have found their way into materials science to construct structures with a high level of control over the number and site of conjugation. These advances have furthermore been facilitated by the emergence of protein engineering methods that allow the ribosomal incorporation of noncanonical amino acids with unnatural functional moieties. These developments are of crucial importance to achieve the synthesis of well-defined pegylated There are a host of technologies being developed with potential proteins, hybrid hydrogels, and polymeric nanocarriers therapeutic value in the bioconjugate universe. It is a tremendously exciting time. The challenge faced with this functionalized with complex biological targeting motifs. fi Although the bioconjugate chemistry toolbox has been eld, though, is that small variations in chemistry can have unexpected impacts on a range of biological outcomes. We, as a extended tremendously over the past years, there are still many fi challenges ahead. First of all, in most cases, only conceptual eld, however, often design experiments focused on looking for studies have been executed, and the exploration of hybrid systems in real applications has been limited. It is up to you to Published: January 15, 2015 © 2015 American Chemical Society 163 DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5b00002 Bioconjugate Chem. 2015, 26, 163−165 Bioconjugate Chemistry Editorial expected outcomes and not the unexpected ones. We need to transfection, cell permeation, and molecular imaging will look at both the anticipated outcomes of a therapy such as increasingly demonstrate unique targeting features such as targeting a tumor or promoting tissue repair, as well as the off tissue specific in vivo delivery. In all cases, the expectation of target effects such as inflammatory responses or unexpected analytically well-characterized bioconjugates and robust syn- thrombosis. It is often very challenging to design experiments thetic methods will remain a hallmark of BC. and approach the findings with a perspective that allows for the I was raised in rural Australia but I have spent most of my unexpected, but the best science is doing just this and opening professional life in the US. I joined the Department of new possibilities for therapies that are thrilling. Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame I started out as a chemist by mixing together everything in in 1991. I serve as Director of the Notre Dame Integrated the chemistry kit my mom found at a yard sale to see what Imaging Facility, a research resource that provides an integrated would happen. It was incredibly disappointing. I next moved to suite of sophisticated microscopes and imaging stations for the ceramics, but my career was redirected when my mom sat next campus. My research interests are quite broad and are perhaps to Martha Gray on an airplane and Prof. Gray suggested I look best labeled as supramolecular chemistry applied to biological into biomaterials. I took that advice, and now my lab works on systems. My group develops small organic molecules that developing materials to leverage biological processes for selectively target cell surfaces and we use these molecules for applications in trauma, neural repair, and ocular disease. We imaging and therapeutic applications. We have created are interested in approaches that use well-characterized molecular imaging probes for detecting cancer, cell death, and materials for biological applications to facilitate translation of microbial infections in living animals. Many of these molecular successful approaches toward therapies. I am constantly probes are now commercially available for preclinical research humbled and surprised by how a simple system with RGD applications. moieties can have a major biological impact. We focus much of our work on developing and applying these systems for ■ GANG ZHENG hemostasis and drug delivery. Through this work, we have found that small changes at the molecular level in these systems can have dramatic impacts on biological processes over a range of length scales. We complement this work with research focusing on new scaffolds for regenerative medicine. The overall approach is to develop materials that leverage biology to augment the response to injury and promote repair. ■ BRAD SMITH Bioconjugate chemistry is essential for achieving targeted imaging and therapy. It is also the critical enabler to permit new methods to be discovered that result in better imaging probes and therapeutic agents. New approaches are developed to create novel molecular constructs for biological applications, and new design principles are introduced for molecular assembly and nanomedicine. Bioconjugate chemistry forms the very foundation that many medical discoveries and advancements have been built upon. As BC stands at the There is little doubt that the development of click chemistry interface of biology and chemistry, contributions that under- over the past decade has produced many notable and score the synergy and report the convergence of these two remarkable advances. There has been widespread exploitation fields are highly desired. The broad chemistry community has of this chemistry for bioconjugation of polymers, surfaces, and been constantly introducing exciting new technologies and is at nanoparticles, leading to new imaging and therapeutic agents. I the same time highly enthusiastic to translate their discoveries foresee continued advances in synthetic methodology to create into practical utilities. However, one common hurdle is the lack new types of covalent bonds and new classes of bioconjugation of resources and biological understanding to validate these methods. The chemistry will permit orthogonal attachment of utilities in vivo. I believe BC can bridge this gap by encouraging multiple building blocks, producing new classes of multifunc- the creative use of these new chemistry methods for novel tional molecular and nanoparticle constructs. These constructs biological applications in both in vitro and in vivo research. will have synergistic targeting, reporting, and therapeutic An organic chemist by training, I have been associated with capabilities, and increasingly they will be shown to operate major research hospitals for all my academic life.

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